About

Scanning Hall 600 at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice

by Erwin Christofori and Ruth Url, Guest Bloggers

February 28, 2014

Erwin Christofori is the founder of the engineering firm Christofori und Partner in Germany, and he is a longtime partner of CyArk. His engineering firm works all over the world, and has had the opportunity to digitally document many unique heritage sites. Through CyArk’s Data Donation Program, Erwin has generously donated several projects to CyArk, including Lourdes Grotto, the Roman Baths of Weißenburg, Saint Anne’s Church, Saint Sebald Church, and the Stone Bridge at Regensburg to keep the heritage data safe and to share these places with the public. Recently, Christofori und Partner was engaged to digitally document Hall 600 at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, and Erwin was kind enough to share his experience and some preliminary scan results, below.

In Hall 600 of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice world history was written. From the 20th November 1945 until 1 October 1946, 21 leading representatives of the Nazi regime had to answer for their crimes against peace and humanity in the court at Nuremberg.

Nuremberg was offered as the venue due to the largely undamaged Palace of Justice and the adjacent prison. In addition, since Nuremberg was the site of the NSDAP Nazi Party Rallies, there was symbolic importance to make the leading Nazis answer for their crimes in this place.

For the first time, representatives of a dictatorial system were considered personally accountable for the war crimes and human rights violations they committed. The affair had a significant influence on the development of international law. The “Nuremberg Principles” later led to the construction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Even now, Hall 600 is a place for justice. Hall 600 is still used as a courtroom. It can be visited on the days that when no major trials proceedings are scheduled and it's part of the City of Nuremberg museum exhibition "Memorium Nuremberg Trials." Here also, emanating from the Nuremberg trials, is the documented development process leading up to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. An expansion project is now beginning at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.

Future plans are to convert Hall 600 into a museum and make it accessible to the public at all times. For this, the room is to be returned to its 1945 state. As a basis for the reconstruction of Hall 600, the engineering firm Christofori and Partners was contracted and charged with establishing an inventory documentation from the relevant historical records from the State Building Authority of the State of Bavaria.

The existing condition has been captured by the laser scanner and point clouds have been generated from the data.

Additionally, a 36 megapixel camera was used to capture more than 150 photogrammetric images. These are combined with the laser scanning in a photo layout and subsequent rendering of spatially accurate plans. From this core documentation, the original components are identified, allowing for the creation of a comprehensive preservation and reconstruction plan, in order to continue to represent the historical condition during the trials.

Special thanks to Wulff Reinhold for the English translation of this blog.